


La Vita Nuova

by cassievalentine



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Kid!Fic, Steggy Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-13 18:44:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9136801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassievalentine/pseuds/cassievalentine
Summary: The next morning, Bucky grabbed his phone to turn off the alarm only to see a text from Steve already waiting for him.I lied. She said yes.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tragicallywicked](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tragicallywicked/gifts).



> Steggy Secret Santa fic for peggyrogersx on Tumblr.
> 
> Thanks to heyfrenchfreudiana for the beta!  
> Enjoy!

“Bucky!” Jake called out as soon as he heard the familiar voice drift through the apartment. He carefully stood from his desk and made his way out to the living room as quickly as he could, eager to greet the visitor.

“Hey buddy, how’re you feelling?” he asked, a large smile on his face as he quickly toed off his shoes before he closed the gap and swept the boy carefully into his arms. Jake was still recovering from his latest procedure, a stint placement to widen some vein or another, and the last thing Bucky wanted to do was aggravate the still healing incision.

“Good,” he declared, throwing his arms around Bucky’s neck and hugging him tightly. “We went to the park today and I got to play on the slide and the swings! It was great . . . until Daddy got lost.” Bucky frowned a little when he heard that and looked over at Steve who offered him a ghost of a smile before moving to the kitchen to start some coffee.

“And how did daddy get lost?” he asked as he moved towards the couch and put Jake down. He pulled off his coat and tossed it over the back while listening to Jake ramble on about swings and slides and bossy, pushy kids before finally getting to the main event.

“We were playing hide and go seek and he hided really good.”

“Hid really well,” Bucky corrected without really thinking. Jake didn’t seem to notice though and continued on with his story.

“And I looked and looked and looked and couldn’t find him. And I was starting to get scared because what if daddy was _really_ lost? And then Peggy found me!” he finished, throwing his arms up in the air for a dramatic effect. Bucky arched an eyebrow and looked up at Steve who was concentrating very hard on the coffee maker. “She thought I was lost,” he continued, shaking his head and Barnes couldn’t help but chuckle a little at Jake’s reaction.

“Please, like you’d ever get lost.”

“So we talked and talked and talked and then she had a plan. She took off her shoes and climbed up on a bench and then lifted me right up onto her shoulders like daddy does! But we still couldn’t find him,” Jake finished, his excitement clearly dipping. Bucky waited for him to keep going, but the boy was clearly lost in his own memories of the day.

“Then what happened?” he prompted, drawing the boy back to the present.

“My bracelet,” he suddenly remembered, thrusting his small arm out while turning the medallion over. “She called the number on the back and got them to give her daddy’s number.” His excitement over the adventure was suddenly back and Barnes couldn’t help but share the smiles. “And then she called daddy and we sat and waited and talked until he found us!”

“Wow! That is quite the story!” Bucky exclaimed, flopping back on the couch as dramatically as he could. Jake’s laughter rang out at the performance as he too flopped back against the couch. It was then that Steve came and joined them, two mugs of coffee in one hand and a glass of juice in the other. The three sat and talked some more before Jake grew bored and headed off to play in his room. 

“So, you met a girl today,” Bucky said, turning his attention to his friend as soon as the boy was out of ear shot. “Was she pretty?”

“Bucky. . .” Steve groaned, rubbing his hands over his face. Barnes was like a dog with a bone though and refused to let this moment go. He continued to prod and tease Steve until he finally told his own version of the story. About how Jake got away from him while they were playing and he started lapping the park like a madman looking for the boy until his phone suddenly rang and an unfamiliar British accent was on the other end. He listened as she quickly explained that she had found Jake and they were happily sitting on a bench surrounded by some tree copses.“And there they were, sitting side by side on a bench talking like old friends,” Steve explained, the surprise at the discovery still evident in his voice. Jake was a quiet, cautious kid and didn’t tend to make friends easily, but there he’d been, sitting on a bench with a virtual stranger telling her about the book he and Steve had just finished reading.

“And?!?”

“And then Jake saw me and rushed over as fast as he could while she apologized for manipulating the Medic-Alert operator to get my number,” he finished with a shrug. Bucky sat back on the couch and just started chuckling. Only Steve could meet a girl like this. “And then she gave me her card incase there was some kind of blow back from all of this.”

“And you got her number too?” Bucky asked, suddenly sitting back up again to stare at Steve with wide eyes. Steve tried to brush it off as no big deal and convince Bucky that he would never use it, but Barnes wasn’t so sure. Steve LOVED to tell a good story and Barnes couldn’t help but feel like Steve was leaving something out of this particular story. “You’re gonna call her,” he assured his friend. “You’re gonna call her and invite her out to coffee as a thank you for keeping Jake safe and calm.” Rogers hesitated for a moment before denying that he was going to do that, but Bucky knew better.

Plus, he just had a feeling that this wasn’t the last he was going to hear about the mysterious Peggy.

***

_You’re a goddamned psychic, aren’t you?_

_Did you have a good time?_ Bucky texted back. It had been a week since Steve had met Peggy and, if he was quite honest, he’d almost given up hope that the two would reconnect. But lo and behold, they'd connected and just had coffee.

_I need a sitter Friday night._ Was the reply and Bucky didn’t hesitate to agree. Steve hadn’t even so much as looked at a woman since Jake was a baby. It was more than past time for him to get back out in the world.

***

And that, as they say, was that. Bucky had taken one look at Steve when he’d gotten home after that date and knew that he was done for.

“Good time?”

“Yeah, it was,” he said, a goofy lopsided smile appearing on his face and Bucky didn’t bother to push further.

“Can’t wait to meet her,” Bucky finally said, pulling Steve in for a tight hug and a pat on the back before he finally pulled away and headed towards the door while Steve headed back to look in on Jake.

***

“I’m gonna propose,” Steve blurted out as soon as he and Bucky had sat down at a table with their drinks. It had been almost a year since Jake had found Peggy in the park and the three had been inseparable since.

“Tonight?” Bucky asked, his head jerking up in surprise to look at Steve. 

“No,” Steve assured him, shaking his head a little while digging into his pocket, finally pulling out a little black box. He held it out to his friend and waited as he took it and opened it.

“No diamond?” Bucky asked when he saw the small sapphire stone.

“It was my mom’s ring,” he said, ducking his head for a moment before looking back up at Bucky. He watched his friend study the ring again before he gently placed it back in the box and snapped it shut.

“It’s perfect,” he declared, sliding the box back to Steve. “What does Jake think?” Steve snorted a little before shaking his head while shoving the ring back into his pocket.

“I haven’t mentioned it to him yet. He couldn’t keep a secret if his life depended on it.” Bucky smiled and nodded. Jake was a sweet kid but Steve was right, he couldn’t keep a secret.

“Speaking of Jake,” Bucky prompted before taking a pull from his beer. “How’s he doing?”

“Bronchitis, again,” Steve replied with a sigh before taking a drink from his beer. “Fever, chills, cough, the whole nine yards. He was negotiating a movie marathon with Peggy when I left.”

“Kid’s a trooper.”

“I’ll say,” Steve agreed as he finished his beer and signaled the waitress for another round.

***

After he and Bucky finally said their goodbyes for the evening, Steve tucked his hands into his pockets and began the short walk home as his mind began to chew over the journey that had brought him here. He’d met Lydia on a blind date that Bucky had set up and hadn’t thought much would come from it, but he’d been pleasantly surprised when they’d hit it off. She was smart, funny, kept Steve on his toes, got along well with Bucky. . . it all seemed to be good until she got pregnant.

Steve had immediately started talking about Doing The Right Thing until Bucky talked him down.“This isn’t the 1940’s, Steve, you don’t have to marry her just because you knocked her up. If she weren’t pregnant, would you be proposing?”

“No,” he admitted, somewhat reluctantly. And that had been the end of the conversation. Still wanting to prove his commitment to her, Steve had eventually asked her to move in with him and they had set about playing happy family. Things had been good, very good, for a while. At least until Jake first got sick.

“He’s got a bad heart,” Steve had confessed to Bucky while getting good and drunk. “He needs surgery, open heart surgery and if they can’t fix it, he’s gonna need a new one.” 

“Just tell me what you need,” Bucky told him without hesitating. “Just tell me what you need me to do and I’ll do it.”

“This is good,” Steve replied with a watery smile. 

“He’s a tough kid, Steve, he’s gonna be fine,” Bucky assured him as he started ordering their rum and cokes without rum.

A few days later though, Steve was taking another hit when Lydia announced that she was out, that she hadn’t signed up for a kid, let alone a kid this sick. “I thought it’d would be ok, but this. . . this is too much,” she’d told him, struggling to meet his eye. “I’ve talked to a lawyer, he’ll send papers in a couple of days.” And with that she was gone.

“You’re gonna be ok,” Bucky assured him quietly as they both sat next to Jake’s bed. As soon as he was over the bronchitis that had landed him in the hospital, the baby would be going in for surgery. “He’s gonna be ok, we’re all gonna be ok.”

A strong wind snapped Steve out of his thoughts and he took a moment to pull the collar of his coat up a little higher before pulling the zipper the rest of the way up before shoving his hands back into his pockets. He did his best not to dwell on the past, especially Lydia. Jake was 4 now, thriving and no worse for not having a mother in his life. In fact, he’d never even asked about Lydia.

Rogers shook his head, trying to shake the depressing thoughts loose as he rounded the corner and hurried towards his building, eager to get out of the wind. He quickly slipped inside and ducked into the stairwell instead of waiting for the elevator.

***

“Daddy?” Peggy looked up from her book as she heard the small voice coming from the back of the apartment followed by a coughing fit. “Daddy?” it called again, slightly louder. She quickly jammed a battered envelope between the pages and placed the book down on the coffee table before heading to the back of the apartment.

“Jake?” she asked softly, turning on the small bedside lamp before sitting on the edge of his bed. The boy started coughing again and she helped him sit up, concern written all over her face as she listened to the raspy breathing that followed.

“Where’s daddy?” he asked, turning to look at her as she ran a hand over his forehead. 

“He’s having a visit with Bucky,” she told him before checking the time and the note pad of medication doses Steve insisted on keeping every time Jake fell ill. “How about something for that cough?” she asked, turning to grab the right bottle. He accepted the medication without complaint before letting himself lean into her side. Peggy wrapped an arm around him before dropping a kiss onto the top of his head while she listened to him breath a while longer.

“I’m tight,” he said after a long moment of silence and Peggy commented that she wasn’t surprised. This was far from the first case of bronchitis he’d had since she started dating Steve and she had become almost as adept at Steve was at knowing when Jake was struggling.

“Let’s fix that, shall we?” Peggy asked. He nodded and sat up by himself, watching as she went through the motions of getting the nebulizer ready. When it was finally set, she gathered him up into her arms and made them a little nest on the oversized, overstuffed chair that lived in the corner of Jake’s room and soon they were both snuggled in. Jake accepted the face mask without arguing and instantly melted back into Peggy’s arms while the machine burbled away.  As the medication did it’s work, she felt the boy grow heavier in his arms as he drifted off again. Despite her best efforts, Peggy soon felt herself drifting off as well.

***

The apartment was quiet and dark when Steve slipped in. He quickly toed off his shoes and dropped his coat onto the hooks by the door before stepping further in. He cast a glance at the couch, looking to see if Peggy had fallen asleep there while reading, but all he found was her paperback with a piece of junk mail hastily shoved in place to act as a bookmark. As he continued on his way, the familiar sound of Jake’s nebulizer hit his ears. Without hesitation, he made his way down the hall to his son’s room and peeked in, expecting to see the boy sprawled out in his bed. Instead, he found his son curled up with his girlfriend and both seemed to be asleep, despite the noise from the small machine at their feet.

“You awake?” he asked quietly as he came to a stop beside the chair.

“Yes,” she muttered as she slowly turned her head and cracked an eye open to see Steve crouched down beside her. She watched with sleepy eyes as he pulled the mask from Jake’s face. “What time is it?”

“About 11:30,” he told her as he stood up and moved to turn the machine off and tuck it out of the way. He’d clean it properly in the morning. Satisfied that it was no longer something to trip over, Steve moved back to stand in front of her and before he knew it, he found himself doing exactly what he had promised Bucky he wasn’t going to do. “Marry me.”

“What?” she asked, suddenly feeling very much awake. She watched him fumble for a moment before he pulled out a small black box. He finally opened it, showing her the ring inside.

“I told Bucky that I wasn’t going to propose tonight and I meant it but then I started thinking about everything on the walk home and seeing the two of you tonight. . . I just. . .  marry me, Peggy,” he rambled out, lifting the ring out of the box and holding it up so she could get a better view of it.

***

The next morning, Bucky grabbed his phone to turn off the alarm only to see a text from Steve already waiting for him.

_I lied. She said yes._

“Son of a bitch,” Bucky said to himself with a chuckle as he quickly typed out his congratulations.


End file.
